Our present Merciless Rockers line-up is:
Timo Leskinen, drums (the heart of the band)
Kari "Kaaka" Isolehto, guitars
Jorma "Jimmy" Hannola, vocals, washboard, tambourine
Harry "Haba" Pajunen, guitars & vocals
Tero "Spidi" Avonius, bass & backing vocals
...but let´s go back in history:
There were a couple of things that were crucial when this band got started:
The Satellites - a band from Porvoo - playing rock & roll, rockabilly and rhythm & blues in the early 80´s and a local American Football Club called The Butchers.
The Satellites were:
Timo Leskinen, drums
Sami Tupala, guitar
Jari Hämäläinen, bass
Jorma "Jimmy" Hannola, vocals
The Satellites disappeared from the finnish band scene in the mid 80´s and the guys kept in touch with each other only occasionally. Meanwhile, the drummer, Timo had met Kari "Kaaka" Isolehto, the guitarplayer from Oitti, Hausjärvi via Butchers. These two planned to form a band, but didn´t get any further at that time.
Then Jimmy celebrated his 40th birthday in summer 2001 and all the members of The Satellites were invited to the birthday party. In that evening it became clear that everybody was interested to put the band back together. In the same autumn The Butchers searched for a band in their End Of The Season Party. Timo, who was playing in the team as the quarterback, started to move forward also in the band issue. As a result of that, all the former members of The Satellites were willing to join this band and along came also Kaaka.
Butchers helped the band by organizing a training place where the guys could practice. So the band chose THE BUTCHERS HOUSE BAND for a new name as a thanks for their support. In the beginning they were playing only in the Parties of The Butchers, but when they got more confident of their performing and more tunes in their repertoire, the gigs elsewhere started to become interesting. The music style was similar to Satellites, so it was easy to continue.
Soon Sami moved away from Porvoo and therefore left the band, so they needed another guitarist to replace him. They found Harry "Haba" Pajunen direct from a Finnish sauna (he was bathing, when the call and invitation to the band came). This was the line-up for a couple of years until the bassplayer, Jari, left. Jari wanted to play a little "heavier" music than the others, so he went on forming his own band. New bassplayer was found from Loviisa - Juuso Järnström. He had already plaeyd in several bands in Loviisa. At that time the guys wanted to move forward and change the name of the band. The Butchers were no longer working active with the band and that was one of the reasons to change the name. ROCKIN´ DADDIES became the new name because it described fully what it was all about. A couple of years later they discovered that there were another band in Finland using the same name. This band from the area of Kuopio had used it longer, so the only choice was to change the name once again. It was a difficult decision to make, the guys were keen on that name and they had started to get some publicity as Rockin´ Daddies, so it was a pity to give up the name. Haba then invented the name THE MERCILESS ROCKERS, but at first they left the Rockers away and used only THE MERCILESS as a new name.
In September 2006 they had to start looking for a new bassplayer, because Juuso had joined in another band in his hometown and wanted to quit with The Merciless. Kaaka knew that Tero "Spidi" Avonius played bassguitar in a band nearby where he lives in Oitti and asked him if he wanted to play with The Merciless. Spidi liked their music and was willing to play with them. So their present line-up was formed. At that time they also decided to add the word Rockers behind The Merciless so they wouldn´t be mixed with a Swedish death metal band using the same name. Rockers is very suitable name to them because Kaaka had played in a band called The Rockers in Riihimäki in the early 80´s.
In March 2007 Merciless Rockers went to studio for the very first time, they were planning to do a promo cd with 4-5 tracks on it, but they got so carried away that they recorded 13 tracks in one day! ...and decided to do cd with those 13 tunes to be sold in their gigs. Five of those tunes are composed by Haba, lyrics are from Haba & Jimmy, and the rest are covers. The CD called Merciless Rockers from Crazy Little Town was published in June 2008, so it took awhile...
After that the guys have done gigs mostly in the southern Finland, but in October 2008 they did their first gig abroad - in Hallstahammar, Sweden.
Now, in October 2010, Merciless Rockers have returned to the same studio for their second recording session, the new cd is planned to be out at the beginning of 2011. There will be 12 tracks, seven of their own and five covers. Haba continues to be one of the composers in the band, but Kaaka has also joined in that team. Lyrics are from Jimmy & Haba. There will be a special guest, Timo Tarkela (from Dr. Snout & His Hogs Of Rhythm, The Relics) with his Sax. It will be a 10 Year Anniversary Album of The Merciless Rockers.